


The Distress Beacon

by qualmsoffyre



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: F/M, Falling In Love, First Kiss, Friendship, Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-27
Updated: 2018-11-27
Packaged: 2019-09-01 04:24:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16757884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/qualmsoffyre/pseuds/qualmsoffyre
Summary: Janeway is injured on an away mission with Harry Kim, and when they are rescued, she discovers that maybe she and Chakotay are at the beginning of a new relationship?





	The Distress Beacon

The shaking of the shuttle craft had yet to cease as Captain Janeway pried her eyes open slowly, not recognizing the space surrounding her. She was lying on the floor, and lights were flashing above her, the computer sputtering some warning about…. something? Was the computer malfunctioning, or was it her? She turned her head, and a sharp pain ran down her neck. 

She gasped, putting her head back where it had been, and thought about how she had gotten here. What could she remember? 

The away mission. They were looking for life, because they had detected a distress beacon on the nearby planet. But they hadn’t been able to identify how old the message was. She had decided to take a shuttle to scout it out with… with Harry? 

Harry. Where was Harry? Was he okay? Suddenly her captainly instincts seemed to overpower her pain; she tried to sit up, carefully holding her head still as she used her arms to lift her torso. There was still pain, but if she looked straight ahead, it was manageable. 

“Harry?” she said, but ended up coughing more than speaking. It was dusty inside the cabin, from some debris that had fallen from the ceiling, she supposed, because she couldn’t see any rocks or outside debris. Trying again, and achieving more vocal clarity, she called for Harry. “Harry! Are you alright? Mr. Kim, report!” 

She couldn’t look around, but she heard something stir to her right. Harry’s voice called out to her, crackling just like hers had moments ago. “Captain--” he was cut off by a fit of coughing. 

“Mr. Kim, are you injured?” Janeway managed to ask, once the coughing had stopped. She still could not see him, but just the fact that she knew she wasn’t alone in this shuttle comforted her. 

“Captain. No, I think I’m okay. Just some bruises, I think, and--ow!--maybe a headache? What about you? Are you alright?” Janeway could hear him moving about, shifting debris from side to side. 

“Listen, Harry. I think I injured my back, because I can’t turn my head to see you. I can’t really see anything but what’s right in front of me, so I don’t even know where we are, or how we’re doing. I think I’m going to need your help.” She took a deep breath, not wanting to seem weak, but also desperately wanting get back to Voyager, even if she needed some help from the ensign. “I’m going to need you to lift me, so I can see what’s going on. We’ll need to contact the ship.”

“Yes, sir,” Harry responded, and suddenly his small face floated into her line of sight. She moved her eyes up towards his hairline, where a large lump was forming on his forehead, complete with a black eye. 

“Harry, are you sure you’re okay?” she asked, worried for her crewman. “You have a bruise already, do you think it’s a concussion?”

“I think I’m fine, Captain. Let’s see what we can do with you. You say you hurt your back? I don’t really think we should try and move you. Back injuries can be extremely dangerous. What if I hurt you more?”

“Ensign, we need to contact Voyager. I don’t know where we are, and we could still be in danger. It’s going to take both of us to get us back. The Doctor will be able to fix me up when we get back, alright, now help me up!” Janeway was worried, too, about what Harry said--that she would injure herself more, but her crew was at stake. She held out her hand, letting out a gasp of pain as she extended her arm, but to her surprise, Harry moved away from her. 

“Captain, I’m sorry, but I’m not going to let you do that to yourself. I can get us home. From the looks of it, we’re not that far from Voyager, but communications are offline. I’m going to get them back up, and they’ll have us beamed back in no time,” Harry explained in one breath, ready to stick up for his choices if she protested. 

Of course, it was easier to defy his captain when he knew she could not physically move to fight him. 

“I think you should lay back down now, Captain. It looks like you’re in a lot of pain. Maybe I can find a hypospray around here? Where’s the med kit?” Harry trailed off slowly, moving farther out of her line of sight, looking for the med kit that had been tossed somewhere in the shuttle. 

Janeway sighed. She knew Harry was right, but she was peeved. When had he gotten so commanding? If they were back on Earth, he would have been promoted from Ensign by now. Maybe I should promote him when we get back to the ship, she thought to herself. Then again, that could be seen as a reward for disobeying a direct order from the captain. So maybe a different time. 

About ten minutes later, after a lot of shuffling of debris and a few muffled shouts of pain from Harry as things fell around him, he returned to Janeway’s side, a hypospray in hand. 

“Captain, here’s a painkiller for you, and also, I managed to get communications running again. I tried the ship, but there was no response, so I’m going to modify the power a bit to help get a better signal. You just relax. I’ll take care of everything.” 

Janeway smiled. She had taught Harry well. “Harry,” she called out, after he administer the hypospray. “Harry, just so you know, you disobeyed an order from your captain. I could put you in the brig for that.”

“I know, Captain. But do you know how much trouble I’d be in with the Doctor if I let you injure yourself more than you already have?” 

She didn’t respond; the hypospray was stronger than the ones the Doctor had, and it was quickly putting her to sleep. As she stared up at the marred ceiling of the shuttle, her last thoughts of drifting off were of Harry wearing the pips of lieutenant. 

****

“Welcome back, Captain!” a voice seemed to shout at her as her eyes barely fluttered open. 

“Doctor. I see Harry managed to communicate with Voyager, and that we have made it back,” she replied, eyes still closed. 

“Indeed. Though I must say, some of the crew were worried about you. You’d been gone a long time,” the Doctor said as scanned Janeway with a tricorder. 

“What do you mean?” she asked him, suddenly more alert. “We were gone a long time? How long? How long have I been in sick bay?”

“Now, now, Captain. Relax, your body is still healing. Lucky for you, Ensign Kim did not follow the order I heard you gave him. I was able to fix your spine, although it may still be sore. I’d like to keep you here overnight, for observation,” the Doctor continued, ignoring her many questions. 

Janeway tried to sit up, ready to receive some answers from the EMH, but he quickly placed a hand on her shoulder, keeping her in place. “Captain, there is someone who has been waiting to see you. Chakotay just stepped out for a minute, but he’ll be pleased to see you’re awake, and he can provide you with answer to your questions. Just promise me you’ll stay lying down for the time being?”

She sighed, but nodded her agreement. Still confused about what had happened, she eagerly awaited the return of her first officer, who apparently had the answers to all her questions. 

Lost in her own thoughts (for some reason they were about Harry Kim becoming an admiral back on Earth), she didn’t hear the door to sick bay open. She was startled by the newcomer shouting her name in delightful surprise. 

“Kathryn!” Chakotay exclaimed, quickly rushing to her bedside, just in time to see her flinch out of her train of thoughts, and immediately wince at the pain that shot through her spine. 

“Oh… I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to startle you,” he said, setting a vase with a beautiful rose on her bedside table. “I just, I’m so glad to see you awake. The crew has been quite worried about you, you know.”

“Chakotay! It’s alright. I’m glad to see you too. Can you tell me what happened? We were only on an eight-hour mission. Were we gone longer? The Doctor said you would be able to fill me in,” Janeway said, turning her head slightly so she could see both Chakotay and the pink flower on her table. 

“Kathryn,” Chakotay began, “you and Harry were missing for three days before he got communicators back online. Somehow, the shuttle you were in got lost in space-time, and even though it seemed like mere minutes for you two, we had three days without contact.”

“Three days?” she wondered aloud. “That’s… but we had only gone to look for the distress beacon. And Voyager wasn’t even that far behind us.”

“Yes. We think the beacon was actually a warning that had become warped. A warning for the hole in space-time your shuttle got caught in. We were tracking your shuttle, and in one second, you vanished from our sensors. There was no way to find you, and Voyager is apparently too large to fit through the door the shuttle went through. We were just waiting here, waiting for some sign of life from the two of you,” Chakotay explained. 

“It all seemed so fast to me. Once second we were leaving Voyager, and the next I woke up in the shuttle mess!” Janeway told him. “Three days!”

“The Doctor says you were lucky to have escaped the tunnel when you did. Even though it only seemed like minutes to you, you really had been bouncing around in the shuttle through space-time for three straight days, and your spine was getting more injured by the hour,” he added, his face suddenly tight.  
“Chakotay, listen, I’m fine,” Kathryn said, reaching out an arm before she realized it would still hurt to move those limbs. She winced, and Chakotay took her hand in his, and laid it back on the biobed, but still kept their fingers intertwined. 

“I know. I know you’re fine,” he said, “but I was so worried about you. You know, you should have sent me on the away mission. The crew needs you, and if anything had happened to you…” he closed his eyes quickly, but she could still see a small puddle of wetness forming behind his lids. 

She squeezed his hand, wishing she was able to get up and hug him right now. A hand squeeze would have to do. “Chakotay,” she began, but was interrupted by his other hand gently brushing her hair away from her face. She exhaled, and a small shiver passed through her body at his touch. 

“If anything had happened to you, I don’t know what I would have done, Kathryn,” Chakotay said, one hand still in hers, the other resting on her chest, having made its way down from her face. “I need you, Kathryn, so don’t do that to me again.”

She closed her eyes, focusing on his hand pressing on her chest, feeling her heartbeat under the warmth of his skin. She was feeling complicated feelings about making Chakotay fear so much for her life, but also, she loved being loved so much by him. 

Chakotay, noticing her eyes were still closed, decided to take a chance, living in the moment. He pressed a tender kiss to her forehead, and then brushed her hair back again from her face. Her eyes opened slowly, and the gazed at each other, as if they were truly seeing the other for the first time. 

“Chakotay,” Kathryn breathed, lifting her other hand and placing it on top of his. “I couldn’t send you on that away mission, because I need you too.” She lifted her head off the pillow, as much as she could without hurting her back, and Chakotay got the hint. 

Gently, he kissed her lips, taking care not to move her head too much. She kissed him back, just as gently. When he pulled away, she seemed to be glowing. One tear fell from the corner of an eye. 

“Chakotay,” she whispered, laying fully back on the biobed. “I need you…. To do that to me again.”


End file.
